Newsletter -Mon 13 Nov, 2023
In this issue
- The borough’s three park cafes, currently vacant, are now expected to be up and running with their new tenants in January/February 2024. The Harlequin team have however opened up the Memorial Park cafe in Redhill on an interim basis. In Priory Park, it looks like rumours of a national chain taking the site are wide of the mark.
- A 30mph limit is being suggested outside Earlswood Lakes, down from the current 40mph. A consultation is running.
- The Lib Dems have announced that local resident Mark Johnston will be their candidate at the next general election.
- Construction is expected to start this year on traffic calming measures in Gatton Park Road.
Other news
- The Pub in the Park food and music festival is returning to Priory Park next year, Friday 12 - Sunday 14 July 2024. Details here (Opens in a new window).
- The Harlequin’s closure because of RAAC, and the creation of a ‘big top’ in Memorial Park for the Christmas panto, appear in a recent Guardian article (Opens in a new window). The piece looks at how theatres around the country are having to find alternative venues ahead of the financially significant festive season.
- The plan to close station ticket offices has been abandoned (Opens in a new window) after a Government u-turn. As previously reported (Opens in a new window), Reigate would have lost its ticket office under the plans, but the station would have been staffed for far more hours than is currently the case.
- Anyone wanting the chance to win a £50 voucher has until 10am today, Monday, to tell the borough council (Opens in a new window) what they think of the Rise, its development in Redhill that’s home to the Light cinema.
- Plans to axe one-day London travelcards have been dropped (Opens in a new window), sparing local travellers increased fares on some day-trips.
A correction
- The previous edition said that the founder of the petition (Opens in a new window) to bring back CCTV in borough town centres, Liam Castles, was a former candidate in borough elections when he is in fact a prospective candidate (for Labour, in South Park and Woodhatch) at the elections in 2024. The online version of the piece has been corrected.
Park cafes now expected to reopen in early 2024
Under refurbishment: Priory Park’s pavilion and temporary kiosk
The vacant cafes in Priory Park, Memorial Park and Lady Neville Recreation Ground are expected to be be up and running with their new tenants early next year.
A borough council officer told Reigate & Banstead’s overview & scrutiny committee on 12 October (Opens in a new window) that all three park cafes now have signed heads of terms, and that the council was “working towards getting the tenant’s leases sorted out”.
Allowing for tenants’ fit-outs, “We are aiming for January, February, hopefully, all going well, for them to be fully occupied and trading,” the officer said.
For Priory Park, rumours circulating on Facebook and Twitter have claimed that Costa is going to be the operator. There seems to be little evidence of that, and this week a spokesperson for the chain said: “Currently there are no plans for a new Costa coffee store in the Reigate area.”
At least one independent has been looking at taking the lease on: that firm told reigate-uk in early October that it couldn’t yet give official confirmation of taking over the cafe and were still finalising details.
On Wednesday this week, we asked the council when an announcement might be expected on the results of the retendering process, but haven’t yet had a response on that.
Separately, a rumour has been doing the rounds (initially on Facebook, now on Twitter) about the building having a balcony on the top, but that was always unlikely. As previously reported (Opens in a new window), the council has itself obtained planning permission to install solar panels there - with a condition that they be laid flat so as not to spoil the view.
Taking the three sites together, once tenants are in, the council is hoping to generate an additional £100,000 of income, compared to the contract that was in place with the former operator.
That figure was given at the October scrutiny meeting, but with no further details. However, the council did say last November (Opens in a new window) that one of the objectives of the forthcoming retender was to to move from an operating contract model to a full repairing lease, increasing the council’s income as it is freed from maintenance obligations.
The cafe in Memorial Park closed last October, Lady Neville in December, and Priory Park this February when the previous operator left the site.
The Memorial Park cafe has been reopened on an interim basis, since last week, thanks to the Harlequin team, as the theatre is currently closed due to RAAC. The council has said (Opens in a new window) the cafe is “open to everyone from 9am ‘til 4pm for hot and cold drinks and snacks - drop in for a cuppa and watch the Big Top [for the Christmas pantomime] take shape.”
30mph limit proposed outside Earlswood Lakes
Surrey County Council is proposing to cut the speed limit on Woodhatch Road, outside Earlswood lakes, to 30mph, and introduce traffic calming measures at the road’s junction with Tiler’s Way.
A diagram from the county council is above. The central section shown in pink hatching will be reduced from 40mph to 30mph. The blue section at left is already 30mph and will stay that way, while the green section at right will continue to have a 40mph limit. (A clearer PDF is here (Opens in a new window).)
Tiler’s Way, which runs off the section marked in blue, will have a junction road table and also two tables either side, aiming to keep drivers to the 30mph limit.
The county council says the changes aim to reduce speed where pedestrian use is highest, and deal with problems experienced by motorists in exiting Tiler’s Way due to speeding.
Comments on the proposals are invited by 23 November - details and diagrams are here (Opens in a new window).
Lib Dems select their parliamentary candidate
After a 10-week selection process, Reigate & Banstead Lib Dems have announced that their candidate for the Reigate constituency at the next General Election will be Mark Johnston (pictured).
“Mark lives in Reigate and is a European policy specialist with over two decades experience working on energy, environment and climate change issues,” the party says.
At the last General Election (Opens in a new window) in December 2019 the Lib Dems came third (with a different candidate), taking 19.4% of the vote, narrowly behind Labour’s 19.5%, and the Conservatives’ 53.9%.
The next General Election, which has to take place no later than 28 January 2025, will have different boundaries (Opens in a new window) for Reigate following following a nation-wide Boundary Commission review.
The Conservatives have already selected (Opens in a new window) their candidate, county councillor Rebecca Paul. Current Conservative MP Crispin Blunt announced in May last year that he will be stepping down at the next election.
Traffic calming on Gatton Park Road: work expected to start this year
L-R: Blue = existing 40 mph to stay; red = current 40mph to change to 30mph; green = existing 30mph to stay (Surrey CC diagram)
Borough councillor Mark Smith (Labour) has said on Twitter (Opens in a new window) that he has learned from Surrey Highways that construction is anticipated to start by the end of the year on traffic calming measures in Gatton Park Road, with the authority waiting for confirmation on dates from their contractors.
The published plans, previously consulted upon, involve reducing a short stretch of the 40 mph limit (Opens in a new window) down to 30mph (red section above), and installing raised tables and speed cushions throughout much of the road (Opens in a new window) from just west of Colesmead Road (roughly where the red and green meet in the diagram above) through to the junction with London Road (A23).
County councillor Natalie Bramhall (Conservative) has tweeted (Opens in a new window) that the plans were due to be implemented early last year, but a utility company booked the space as an emergency, meaning cancellation. “They have been delayed for far too long, they are now going to be installed,” she said.
Consultation material previously published states (Opens in a new window) the calming measures are a response to “longstanding concerns raised by both the county councillor and local residents regarding vehicle speeds along A242 Gatton Park Road, Redhill.
“This is resulting in personal injury and damage only collisions with parked vehicles and walls/fences in front gardens.”
The short section that changes to 30mph will encourage vehicles to slow before encountering the speed tables in the traffic-calmed section, other material said (Opens in a new window).
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